Mission Statement, History, University Administration
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Tulane University microscope in 1852. The medical department faculty fought for Tulane University improved public health and sanitation; and, in 1857, Christian Roselius, an early graduate of the collegiate and law departments, CATALOG 2007-2008 was appointed Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. MISSION STATEMENT The Civil War forced the University to close. After the war, the University reopened in financial trouble. Total assets, excluding Tulane’s purpose is to create, communicate, and conserve buildings, totaled $4,570.39 in 1866. In the early l880s, Paul knowledge in order to enrich the capacity of individuals, Tulane provided a permanent solution by donating more than $1 organizations and communities to think, to learn, and to act and million “for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, lead with integrity and wisdom. moral, and industrial education.” Tulane had made his fortune in HISTORY New Orleans before returning to his native Princeton, New Jersey; his gift expressed his appreciation to the city. Tulane University, one of the foremost independent national universities in the South, is ranked among the top quartile of the The 17-member board authorized to administer the Tulane nation’s most highly selective universities. With nine schools and Educational Fund decided to revitalize the struggling University colleges that range from the liberal arts and sciences through a of Louisiana instead of founding a new institution. Paul Tulane full spectrum of professional schools, Tulane gives its 11,000 concurred, and in 1884, the Louisiana legislature gave the students a breadth of choice equaled by few other independent University of Louisiana to the administrators of the Tulane universities in the country. Educational Fund. Tulane University of Louisiana, a private, non-sectarian institution, was born. Tulane University’s nine academic divisions enroll approximately 5,500 undergraduates and about 4,800 graduate As a result of its new strength, the University was able to create and professional students. The schools of Architecture, Business, the Department of Philosophy and Science, which later became Liberal Arts, and Science and Engineering offer both the Graduate School, and initiate courses in architecture and undergraduate and graduate programs. Other divisions include engineering. In 1886, Josephine Louise Newcomb founded the Schools of Law, Medicine, Public Health and Tropical Newcomb College as a memorial to her daughter, Harriott Medicine, Social Work, and Continuing Studies. All divisions Sophie. Newcomb was the first degree-granting women’s college except the medical complex, which includes a teaching hospital in the nation to be established as a coordinate division of a men’s and clinic, are located on Tulane’s 110-acre campus in uptown university. It became the model for other coordinate women’s New Orleans. colleges, including Barnard and Radcliffe The University’s origins trace back to the founding of the Newcomb’s founding is linked with the World’s Industrial and Medical College of Louisiana, the Deep South’s first medical Cotton Exposition which opened in Audubon Park in 1884. school, in 1834. Classes started the next year when 11 students Several artisans who came to the New Orleans Exposition to and seven faculty members met in a rented hall; students paid for exhibit their own work and see the works of others stayed to instruction by the lecture. Born of the desperate need for establish the arts program, which was at the heart of Newcomb’s competent medical care in this region and of the founders’ early curriculum. By the early 1900s, Newcomb pottery had won dedication to study and treat “the peculiar diseases which prevail a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition, its fame had spread across in this part of the Union,” the college quickly earned recognition. the nation, and young women were engaged in the unusual task of earning an independent living. Soon the medical college merged with the public University of Louisiana in New Orleans, adding a law department and a In 1894, Tulane moved to its present campus on St. Charles “collegiate” department which became Tulane College. The Avenue, five miles by streetcar from its former site in downtown university continued building a national reputation. J. L. Riddell, New Orleans. At about the same time, the Richardson Memorial professor of chemistry, built the first successful binocular Building was built on Canal Street to house the medical school. 2 Tulane University Tulane University Some medical classes were moved to the uptown campus, but Tulane Medical Center, now the Health Sciences Center, was clinical teaching remained downtown. The medical school was established in 1969 to include the School of Medicine, the School split between campuses until a major reorganization in the 1960s. of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the Tulane For a quarter of a century, Newcomb College had been on University Medical Center Hospital and Clinic. The Health Washington Avenue in the Garden District. In 1918 it, too, Sciences Center also administers the Tulane National Primate moved uptown to join other divisions of the university. Research Center in Covington, Louisiana; the F. Edward Hebert Riverside Research Center in Belle Chasse, Louisiana; and the Around the turn of the century, Tulane’s curriculum grew as International Collaboration in Infectious Diseases Research several new professional schools were established, including the (ICIDR) Program in Cali, Colombia. Deep South’s first schools of architecture, business, and social work. City officials frequently consulted the College of By their very nature, universities are organic, constantly changing Technology, which became the School of Engineering, on in reaction to their people, their immediate environment, and the construction techniques and soil conditions. Engineering alumnus educational climate in general. Most change occurs slowly, over A. Baldwin Wood designed the famous Wood screw pump that time; unless, of course, something happens—a hurricane, for helps drain New Orleans in times of torrential rains and flooding. example—to speed the process. The first student yearbook, Jambalaya, and the first Tulanian, the In the fall of 2005, following the nation’s worst national alumni magazine, were published. The Alumni Association was disaster—Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding— founded with 800 members, and significant contributions to the Tulane University was confronted with unprecedented challenges University financed new buildings, library holdings, and research and, if those challenges could be mastered, tremendous facilities. The Middle American Research Institute, founded in opportunities. The administration and the Board of Tulane 1924, became a pioneer in Central American archaeology and University were faced redefining and renewing the university for anthropology, excavating and restoring the Mayan village of the future. University President Scott Cowen called the resulting Dzibilchaltun in the Yucatan. plan “the most significant reinvention of a university in the Since then, research in many disciplines has flowered through the United States in over a century.” establishment of research centers, including: the Murphy Institute The plan outlines four characteristics by which Tulane University of Political Economy, the Newcomb College Center for Research is and will be defined: on Women, the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American • by its world-class educational and research programs. Studies, the Center for Bioenvironmental Research, the Tulane Museum of Natural History, and the Amistad Research Center, • by its unique relationship to the culturally rich and diverse city curator of one of the largest collections in the world of primary of New Orleans, characterized by its great waterways. source material on American ethnic groups, especially African- • by its historical strengths and ability to strategically redefine Americans. itself in light of the disaster in ways that will ultimately benefit As early as the 1890s, Tulane offered free lectures and classes to the Tulane community, New Orleans and other communities the New Orleans community. This commitment to community around the globe. service was reaffirmed in 1942 with the founding of University • by its financial strength and viability. College, now the School of Continuing Studies, which offers adult education and sponsors the annual Summer School. With these four characteristics in mind, an intensive examination of the university’s organizational structure was undertaken and After World War II, Tulane’s Graduate School and the professional programs continued to grow. The university was ways of maximizing organizational efficiency were identified. elected to the Association of American Universities, a select The resulting renewal plan has at its center: group of over 60 universities with “pre-eminent programs of graduate and professional education and scholarly research.” The 3 4 Tulane University Tulane University • a focus on an exceptional undergraduate program that is Mary Ann Maguire campus- and student-centric and a dedication to the holistic Ph.D., Stanford University development of students. Associate Dean • a core that is surrounded and strengthened by superb graduate, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE professional and research programs that build on the university’s historical strengths and distinctive characteristics. Scott Bernhard M.Arch., Rice University Tulane’s programs will be shaped by